Darnold, O’Connell not blaming missed face mask call as reason why Vikings lost to Rams

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold didn’t blame the officials for a missed face mask call when he was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Instead, Darnold lamented the situation that pinned the Vikings deep in the first place.

“The facemask — it is what it is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could’ve done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. We just have to continue to play better and not put ourselves in that situation to begin with.”

The Vikings got the ball at their own 5-yard line with 1:46 remaining after Rams punter Ethan Evans’ 41-yard kick landed out of bounds on the left sideline.

Darnold missed connecting with Jordan Addison on first down. On second-and-10, Darnold got a couple clean seconds in the pocket before Byron Young barreled past left guard Blake Brandel and took down Darnold for a safety, putting the game out of reach.

Referee Tra Blake said in a pool report that he and umpire Carl Paganelli — the two officials closest to the play — did not have a clear view.

Blake said the officiating crew discussed the play after the Vikings brought up Young’s infraction, but no one was able to clearly see it.

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Face mask calls are not reviewable by instant replay.

“The quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me so I did not have a good look at it. I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled,” Blake said. “The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn’t call it. We couldn’t see it.”

Coach Kevin O’Connell said “it looked like (Young) got a pretty good amount of facemask there,” but he wasn’t going to blame that for Minnesota’s second loss in five days.

“I told our team, officiating and all that stuff, for us to talk about that and to seek comfort in that is not how we’re going to respond to this,” he said. “It looked like he got a piece of the facemask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”

If Young had been penalized, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 at their own 20. But they had no time outs and would have needed a touchdown and 2-point conversion to send the game into overtime.

O’Connell’s bigger concern is about left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who suffered an injury to his left knee late in the first half.

Darrisaw got hit from the side by Rams safety Jaylen McCollough while run blocking for Aaron Jones. McCollough lost his balance and went to the ground when he made a diving tackle attempt on Jones.

David Quessenberry replaced Darrisaw at left tackle for the remainder of the game. Darrisaw was on crutches as he left the locker room after the game.

“We’ll continue that evaluation here and Friday, and try to confirm what that is, keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news,” O’Connell said.

After winning its first five games, Minnesota is reeling a bit with two straight losses, including a 31-29 defeat at Detroit last Sunday.

The Lions (5-1) move into the lead in the hyper-competitive NFC North while Green Bay (5-2) and Chicago (4-2) are not far back.

“Having the mini bye will allow us to get healthy and look ourselves in the mirror and do the little things right,” said Darnold, who was 18 of 25 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. “At the end of the day, I feel like we have to do the little things right and hash out the details. If we do that, I know we are going to be a real good offense and team. It is the little things we can control.”

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